Brooklyn Lightweight Bruce Carrington Shooting for Stardom

Brooklyn lightweight Bruce Carrington will be looking for revenge and added credibility at the Pan American Games, starting July 27 in Lima, Peru, as one of the elite fighters on Team USA.

Carrington qualified for the Pan American Qualifier by winning the 2019 Pan Am Box-Off Championship. The lightweight division will be contested at 138 pounds, rather than 132, as in the past.

“Even though the lightweight weight class changed for the Olympics,” Carrington explained, “they brought the 132-pound division back for the Pan Ams. The top 132-pounders during the last two years were contacted to compete in the Pan Am Box-Off Championships and I beat them all.”

At the Pan American Games Qualifier, Carrington reached the quarterfinals to qualify for the Pan Am Games, losing in those quarterfinals, 5-0, to two-time defending Pan American Games champion Lazaro Alvarez, of Cuba. Alvarez lost in the championship final to the Dominican Republic’s Alexis Miguel De Los Santos. Carrington is looking forward to the challenge of facing three-time AIBA World champion Alvarez and De Los Santos during the Pan American Games.

“I lost to the No. 1 lightweight in the world, but it was a close fight,” 2012 National PAL champion Carrington noted. I expect to see him and the fighter who beat him at the Pan American Qualifier in Peru. International fighting is making me a much better fighter. A lot of (foreign) fighters are different. They have their own styles; sometimes it’s awkward.”

Carrington started boxing at the tender age of seven, because he kept fighting older kids at school who bullied him, and his father kept getting calls from guidance counselors. “I was just defending myself,” Carrington claimed. “I watched boxing on television with my dad. I was in awe of local fighters like Curtis Stevens, Danny Jacobs and others. I fell in love with boxing and it’s stuck with me. I respect all sports, but I don’t like relying on others. If I’m going to lose, I’m going to lose on my own, after putting everything into it. You can’t blame your coach, mother, teammates, or anybody in boxing. It’s all on you. I think it also builds character.”

Qualifying for the Pan American Games, according to Carrington, is his greatest achievement to date. However, he was an alternate in the lightweight division for the 2016 USA Olympic Boxing Team.

Self-described as a boxer-puncher who has a solid defense and quickness, the 22-year-old Carrington also noted that he is trying to use more power on firing shots inside.

More than anything, Carrington appreciates the travel USA Boxing has afforded him, including trips to Nicaragua, London, Ireland, to go with Peru later this month, and hopefully Japan next year.

“I love traveling to other countries,” Carrington added. “I’m from New York and we have a lot of benefits that people from other countries don’t have. My ‘struggles’ are not struggles compared to people living in other countries. I understand that now, because traveling has opened my mind.”

Carrington has lofty goals, saying, “My ultimate dream is to become the greatest athlete, not just boxer, because I set the bar high. I’m not fighting for free. I’m going to go pro (after the Olympics) and be a multiple-time world champion.

From the hood to Olympic Center Training Center, Bruce Carrington is shooting for stardom.

“I’m from the hood,” he concluded, “and I’ve interacted with people I’ve met through boxing, taking advantage of opportunities. Boxing has changed my life.”